US Ramps Up Pakistan Drone Strikes

A bomb targeting paramilitary soldiers killed 12 people in southwest Pakistan on Thursday, while five suspected militants died in a U.S. drone strike in the country's northwest, officials said.

Separately, an explosion ripped through a crowded mosque in the northwest city of Mingora, killing 21 people and injuring more than 70 others, said hospital official Mian Gul Aleem. The blast was caused by a gas cylinder that exploded, said senior police official Gul Afzal Khan.

The drone strike was the seventh in two weeks, one of the most intense series of attacks in the past two years. During that period, political tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan led to a reduced number of strikes compared to 2010, when they were at their highest.

It's unclear whether the current uptick has been caused by particularly valuable intelligence obtained by the CIA, or whether the warming of relations between the two countries has made strikes less sensitive. Protests by the government and Islamic hardliners have been noticeably muted.

TVNL Comment: We are bombing countries with whom we are NOT at war. This is a clear violation of International Law, and a sure way of making millions of enemies with each strike.